Affordable SSD engine turns used laptops faster, more capacious

By Ko Dong-hwan

Solid state drive (SSD) is becoming a popular tool to boost used laptops' speeds instead of purchasing new ones.

Old laptops cursed with sluggish operating speeds often call for purchasing new ones, but a cheaper and more effective upgrading tool called “SSD” is becoming increasingly attractive among Korea’s laptop users.

Digital Times reported on Monday the advantages of the solid state drive (SSD), an upgraded version of hard disk drive (HDD) conventionally installed in laptop computers.

The report cited CEO Ahn Hyun-cheol of an SSD-specializing firm Revu Ahn Tech, who compared HDD and SSD to a cassette player and an mp3 player, respectively. It means while HDD functions are based on “fast forward” or “rewind,” SSD simply “selects” working tracks, saving much time and increasing laptop’s speed.

Ahn said sluggishness of computers or laptops is caused not by their CPUs or other components but HDDs.

SSD’s effectiveness was verified in a comparative test performed by Digital Times using two laptops, one with an HDD and the other with an SSD. While HDD took 29 seconds for booting, SSD took only nine seconds.

The HDD also took 15 seconds to activate the Internet Explorer and 6.3 seconds for Microsoft Excel, while the same took 1.5 and 0.8 seconds for the SSD. HDD’s random access memory (RAM) was 100 MB/sec., while that of SSD hit 550 MB/sec.

Because SSDs can be installed in addition to existing HDDs, their combined space brings an additional 130 gigabytes or more.

The report said SSD installation is recommended at SSD-specializing shops, where it costs between 100,000 and 200,000 won, a relatively good bargain considering new laptops cost around 1 million won.